Soul and R&B

Aaron Neville

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After five decades of consistent hit-making, Neville has, in the words of one Rolling Stone writer, "reached a highpoint in a career marked by artistic superlatives. Bring It On Home - The Soul Classics is an album for the ages and Neville's most remarkable work to date."

"These classic songs," says Aaron, "have been pumping blood to my heart from the first second they heard them. They've been a part of my life. Singing them, especially in the aftermath of Katrina, was a deeply spiritual experience. They helped me get through. They gave me hope. And for me, music has always been about hope." The third youngest of the famous four Neville brothers-Art and Charles are older, Cyril's younger-Aaron was born into one of New Orleans' most celebrated families.

His first influence was Art. "I never heard a better singer or funkier keyboardist than my big brother," says Aaron.

"Brother Charles," he continues, "was the family jazzman. He blew sax and schooled me in the ways of improvisation. Brother Cyril was our James Brown. He was-and still is-a great singer. He burns with soul."

Aaron was the first Neville to burn his way up the national charts. In 1966, his "Tell It Like It Is" hit number-one. Unfortunately, the label, Par-Lo, went broke before Aaron got paid. On the strength of the smash, though, Neville toured nationally and established his status and a singular style marked by a rare and haunting beauty.

"That style," he says, "is rooted in the doo wop of the fifties-- the Moonlgows, the Flamingos, the Clovers and a close friend, Pookie Hudson and the Spaniels. But I was also deep into the gospel groups, the Pilgrim Travelers, the Brooklyn All-Stars and The Blind Boys of Alabama. And then there were those yodeling cowboys. I loved them."

The seventies were rough, but Aaron successfully fought off a slew of demons and, together with his brothers and their beloved Uncle Jolly, created The Wild Tchoupitoulas, a dazzling suite of Mardi Gras Indian songs that holds a high place in American music.

The brothers pursued other projects on their own, most notably Art and Cyril's work with the Meters. Later the Neville Brothers, with Aaron as one of the lead vocalists, were signed to Capitol, and then to A&M where, in the eighties, they recorded a series of memorable albums, including Yellow Moon. (Aaron wrote the title track, a major hit.)

Aaron's solo career was re-launched in the nineties when Linda Rondstadt and George Massenburg produced his Warm My Heart, a major bestseller. The nineties was also the decade when the industry began awarding Aaron with its most prestigious prize: He won two Grammies in duets with Linda Ronstadt, "Don't Know Much" and "All My Life," both ten-top hits.

In the coming years, Aaron would be nominated for 16 Grammies in categories as diverse as country and western, pop, r&b and gospel. In 1994, he and Trisha Yearwood won Best Country and Western vocal collaboration for "I Fall to Pieces." In this same period, he won Best Male Singer two years running in the Rolling Stone critics' poll.

"When I was in the booth singing these songs, songs so connected to my life before Katrina, I couldn't help but think how this storm changed everything. I was thinking about all those people in the water. Thinking of friends I might never see again. Thinking of how I had lost my home, how three of my sons, my brother Cyril and sister Athelgra all had lost their homes. So much loss was on my mind."

"The idea behind the record was simplicity itself," says producer Stewart Levine, whose work, among many others, with Simply Red, the Crusaders and B.B. King has earned him an international reputation for creative excellence.

"We took these iconic songs and stripped them to their essence. We didn't want Aaron to cover them; we wanted him to redefine them. He did just that. He turned them into personal testimonies. The truth is that, as a vocalist, he's on a par with the artists who made these tunes legendary-Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke, Al Green, Otis Redding, Curtis Mayfield. It's foolish to compare masters-they each possess unique genius-but Aaron's genius, evident in this record, is still expanding, still deepening."

"Aaron also related to the musicians on this record," says Levine, "the rhythm section of drummer James Gadson, guitarists Ray Parker, Jr. and Heitor Pereira, bassist Freddie Washington, keyboardists Neil Larsen and the great Joe Sample. It's an amazing group whose experience and rapport with this music matches Aaron's."

"This is a strange moment in my career," muses Aaron. "Since Katrina I've devoted months and months to benefit concerts-and that's been a blessing. My profile and the profiles of my brothers have been raised by the storm. People all over the world see us as the face of New Orleans. They want to hear us play. They want to feel that we've survived the storm. They want to be assured that life goes on."

Ernie K-Doe

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A flamboyant R&B singer who proclaimed himself "Emperor of the World," Ernie K-Doe made a splash in the pop music world in the early 1960s when his single, "Mother-in-Law" reached number one on the charts. Though he never again produced a number one song, he had several other minor hits and enjoyed legendary status in his native New Orleans, Louisiana.

K-Doe was born Ernest Kador, Jr., on February 22, 1936, in New Orleans's Charity Hospital. His father was a Baptist preacher and Kador's first public singing, at age nine, was in church choirs; he later sang with touring gospel groups. But like many others, the pull of pop music, in particular doo wop and R&B, was too much for him. In the early 1950s the young Kador sought to advance his career in Chicago where he briefly sang with the Flamingos and the Moonglows. His Chicago sojourn, however, proved less than fruitful, and Kador soon returned to New Orleans and to his gospel roots.

K-Doe began hanging out at the famed Dew Drop Inn and other New Orleans clubs like the Sho-Bar. He also sang briefly with a local group, the Blue Diamonds, with whom he recorded on the Savoy label. As a solo artist he signed with Herald and Specialty, and it was with the latter that he recorded his solo record, "Do Baby Do," released in 1956. In 1959 K-Doe had a local hit with "Hello My Lover," written by the legendary New Orleans songwriter/producer, Allen Toussaint.

It was Toussaint, in fact, who gave K-Doe, then recording on Minit Records (who, according to legend, were responsible for K-Doe's name change), the biggest boost to his career. Toussaint wrote four songs for K-Doe in 48 hours: "Hello My Lover," "T'aint It the Truth," "Wanted: Ten Thousand Dollar Reward," and the song that would become K-Doe's only number one hit, "Mother-in-Law." Ironically, K-Doe abandoned "Mother-in-Law" during rehearsal because it had not gone well. However, as Toussaint recollected in K-Doe's obituary in the New Orleans Times-Picayune: "It found its way back out of the trash can and into my hands, so we could try again. I'm so glad we did." The four songs, including "Mother-in-Law" were recorded at Cosimo Matassa's studio, a popular recording studio of the era.

Following the success of "Hello My Lover," Minit released "Mother-in-Law." The popularity of the novelty song, with horns and backup singers complementing K-Doe's outrageous vocalizing, took everyone by surprise. It reached number one on Billboard's R&B chart during May of 1961. "Mother-in-Law" was the pinnacle of K-Doe's success, but he used it to both sustain, for a time, and later rebuild his career. In the early 1960s K-Doe toured the United States, performing in venues such as the venerable Apollo Theater in New York City.

Though never considered more than a regional celebrity, his own flamboyant flair for self-promotion made him a legend in his hometown of New Orleans. The town forgave his failings, nurtured his eccentricities, and eventually accorded K-Doe legendary status, primarily on the strength of "Mother-in-Law." K-Doe subsequently released a single he himself wrote,"Te-Ta-Te-Ta-Ta," which became a minor hit throughout the Southeast. After this came another important K-Doe release--"I Have Cried My Last Tear." It was backed on the B side by "A Certain Girl," a tune that became popular in the United Kingdom, where it was covered by the Yardbirds and the Paramounts. (It was also recorded in the United States by Warren Zevon.) Other K-Doe songs of the early and mid-1960s include "Popeye Joe" and "I'm the Boss."

When Motown and the British Invasion combined to crowd the established R&B and doo wop singers off the pop charts in the mid-1960s, K-Doe returned his home base in New Orleans. By 1967 he had signed with a new record company, Duke, and got back on the R& B charts for the last time with the singles "Later for Tomorrow" and a remake of "Until the Real Thing Comes Along."

The next two decades were particularly rough for K-Doe. His eight-year-old son, Kevin, was shot to death in the late 1970s; his music was relegated to the novelty and oldies categories; and he became caught in the blur of alcoholism. He performed very seldom during those years, yet his legend grew as a result of a job he took as a guest deejay on WWOZ, an FM community radio station. K-Doe, who admitted "I'm cocky, but I'm good," often exhorted himself over the air with the slogan "burn, K-Doe, burn." This became a catchphrase for his fans and the title of a CD released in 1989. By then K-Doe was on his second career and his loyal fans wholeheartedly embraced him as "Emperor of the Universe."

In the late 1980s, clearly on a downslope, K-Doe sang "Mother-in-Law" and other New Orleans tunes in such venues as Club Lingerie. His career was revitalized when he met Antoinette Fox, a K-Doe fan who managed a bar where he spent time. It was she, along with musician Milton Batiste and his wife Ruby, who got K-Doe back onstage; Fox and K-Doe were married in January of 1996. By then the couple had taken over a rundown bar called Memories and, with the assistance of friends and K-Doe's fans, reopened the club as the Ernie K-Doe Mother-in-Law Lounge. More than a club, it became a museum dedicated to K-Doe; its hot pink exterior symbolized K-Doe's flamboyance. The Ernie K-Doe Mother-in-Law Lounge quickly caught on with K-Doe's fans, especially when he began performing regularly in the club. His backup singers, the Paradise Ladies, were Fox and her cousin, Tee Eva (sometimes spelled T-Eva) Perry. Backed at first by the Top Notes, he later formed a ten-piece band called the Blue-Eyed Souls. As an added flourish, K-Doe's new mother-in-law would appear onstage while he sang his signature song.

In addition to being the headquarters for the K-Doe resurgence, the Mother-in-Law Lounge became a cornerstone for the revitalization of a once-booming African American neighborhood. K-Doe himself was a changed man in the 1990s--a "recovering" alcoholic who still drank occasionally and devoted himself to local charitable causes such as New Orleans' Kingsley House, the oldest settlement house in the South. As K-Doe recounted to David Cuthbert in a New Orleans Times-Picayune interview, "Anytime Kingsley House calls and wants me to do something for them, I'm there. Oh, yes, I'm their man." K-Doe also performed at a July 4, 1999, roots concert in Washington, D.C., for National Public Radio.

Accolades also came to K-Doe in the 1990s. He was inducted into the New Orleans Music Hall of Fame in 1995 and into the Louisiana Hall of Fame in 1997; he was also awarded the Pioneer Award at Radio City Music Hall in New York City by the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. In 1999 he received the first Heritage Award, part of the Big Easy Entertainment Award, along with a Legend Award from the South Louisiana Association. In the same year two record companies, AIM and Mardi Gras, released Ernie K-Doe CDs--The Building Is Shakin' & The Walls Are Tremblin'and The Best of Ernie K-Doe, respectively.

By 2000 K-Doe's legend had captivated a new generation of New Orleans rockers. In March of 2000 five underground rock bands paid tribute to him at the Mother-in-Law Lounge by alternately backing him on his memorable songs. One of the bands, Fireball Rockett, had even recorded its own tribute, entitled "K-Doe." The success of the night overwhelmed even the irrepressible K-Doe who told Keith Spera of the New Orleans Times-Picayunesix weeks later that "I didn't expect that big a crowd. I was very proud of (the rock bands). I stayed in their corner with them to make sure they had it right."

Then in May of 2000, Neil Strauss of the New York Timesinterviewed K-Doe in his touring van, which was parked outside the Ernie K-Doe Mother-in-Law Lounge. Afterward the reporter went inside to watch the singer's second set. Near the end of his performance K-Doe suddenly accused Strauss of illegally recording the performance on his tape recorder, which contained the K-Doe and other interviews. The club's doors were locked and the police were called; the standoff lasted two hours before things were sorted out.

Even though he had moderated his drinking, two decades of alcoholism caught up with K-Doe in 1998 when he was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver. Over the next three years his condition worsened even as he continued to perform and hone his legend. K-Doe died from kidney and liver failure on July 5, 2001. In comments recorded on the New Orleans Channel (WDSU-TV, New Orleans) website, Toussaint remarked, "Beyond the musician there was no K-Doe. He was all about the stage. Offstage, he was still on."

by Frank Caso

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Joe held the keyboard chair with Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown & Gate's Express from 1992 until Gatemouth's passing in the fall of 2005. Joe is featured on the chart topping albums The Man, Gate Swings, American Music, Texas Style and most recently Back to Bogalusa albums. In 1995, Gatemouth and the Gate's Express including Joe on keyboards, did a 62 date world tour as the opening act for Eric Clapton. The band, Gate's Express won an Offbeat 2004 Best Band in the Blues Category. Joe is also featured in Gatemouth's band on Carlos Santana's Carlos Santana Presents Blues At Montreux 2004 (2006) DVD

From September 1996 to June 2001, he held the Traditional Piano Night slot at the Maple Leaf Bar in New Orleans, which was once occupied by Professor Longhair and James Booker. Joe followed that strong tradition with his debut solo release Just the Piano...Just the Blues (1998) and the follow-up CD, New Orleans Piano Rolls (2003). Joe has been a headline performer at WWOZ's Piano Night during the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage festival every year since 1997. As of Labor Day 2001, Joe and the Traditional Piano Night moved to Le Bon Temps Roule in New Orleans. In November 2003, Joe made his European debut as a solo piano performer playing a 5 night club tour in Germany.

His band, the Joe Krown Organ Combo (New Orleans, LA) was formed in 1999. The Joe Krown Organ Combo made its European debut in November 2001 at the Ingolstadt Jazztage in Ingolstadt Germany and makes regular appearances at the French Quarter Festival in New Orleans, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and the Ottawa Blues Fest. The Joe Krown Organ Combo has appeared at such noted nightclubs as the Boom Boom Room in San Fransisco, CA and Tobacco Road in NYC. The Joe Krown Organ Combo performs every week at one of the many New Orleans nightclubs, including the Maple Leaf Bar, House of Blues, Tipitina's, Le Bon Temps Roule, dba, and the Funky Butt. The Joe Krown Organ Combo has 4 CD releases. Down & Dirty (1999), Buckle Up (2000) and Funkyard (2002) were all released on the New Orleans label STRdigital. Krown's newest release, the Joe Krown Organ Combo's Livin' Large, released in February 2005, is Joe's first independent release with Krown as producer.

In June 2000, Joe started playing around New Orleans with Jumpin' Johnny Sansone (harmonica, vocals) and John Fohl (acoustic guitar and vocals) in an acoustic delta blues trio featuring Joe on piano. Sansone, Krown & Fohl made their New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival debut in May 2001 and has also performed at "Rivers Festival" in Columbia South Carolina. In April 2004 Sansone, Krown & Fohl released thier first self-titled CD on the Shortstack Records label. Sansone Krown & Fohl won a 2004 Big Easy Award in the blues category.

In March 2003, Joe took his band up to the Rock & Bowl for the Wednesday night swing dance night. Following in the tradition of Gatemouth Brown's swing music, Joe's swing band has become the feature band for one of New Orleans' most popular swing dances. Gatemouth was a regular special guest with Joe's swing band at the Rock Bowl's Wednesday Night Swing Dance.

In April 2004, Joe starting playing in New Orleans Juice. Juice is one of the premier national touring acts from New Orleans legendary funk scene. The band is a 4-piece New Orleans style funk band, that has a very creative original mix of New Orleans funk, blues, second line, rock and rhythm and blues. Joe is featured on their 2005 double live CD, Hey Buddy.

Joe has performed with Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Johnny Adams, Marcia Ball, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, New Orleans Juice, Theresa Anderson, C.J. Chenier, Irene Sage, and Marva Wright. Joe has held the keyboard chair for Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown since 1992. As the keyboard player in Gatemouth's band and as an artist, Joe has shared the stage with superstars like Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, Kim Wilson, Ike Turner, Jimmy McGriff, Melvin Sparks, George Porter Jr., Buddy Guy, Niles Rodgers, Shemekia Copeland, Paul Shaffer (David Letterman Show), Lenny Picket (Tower of Power, SNL band), Sonny Landreth, Dr. John, Albert Collins, Joe Sample, Irma Thomas, Kenny Neal, Frankie Ford, and many others. During the 2005 New Orleans Jazz Fest , the Joe Krown Organ Combo hosted an all-star New Orleans Organ Summitt for the city of New Orleans' Mo Fest. Joe and his band were the house band for a 2-hour show that featured Dr. John, Art and Ivan Neville, Robert Walter (Grey Boy All-Stars), Rich Vogel (Galactic) and John Gros (Papa Grows Funk).

In the fall of 2007, Joe was invited to be a feature artist in the Solid Blues Tour. The tour was a 38 U.S. city tour in October and November 2007 and it featured Mavis Staples, Charlie Musselwhite, the North Mississippi All-Stars and Joe. Joe performed a 20 minute solo piano set featuring music from his latest CD Old Friends, and then he joined the North Mississippi All-Stars backing up Mavis Staples and Charlie Musselwhite.

Joe has recorded with Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Luther "Guitar Jr." Johnson, Jumpin Johnny Sansone, New Orleans Juice, Kid Ramos (guitarist from the Fabulous Thunderbirds), Bobby Charles, Raful Neal, Marva Wright and many other New Orleans artists. Krown has six CDs out under his own name and one CD as member of Sansone, Krown & Fohl. As a member of Gatemouth Brown's band, Krown is on Carlos Santana's Carlos Santana Presents Blues At Montreux 2004 (2006) DVD.

John Cleary

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New Orleans' Jon Cleary is a triple threat—with a salty-sweet voice, masterful piano skills, and a knack for stacking infectious grooves with melodic hooks and sharp lyrics. All of his talents are manifest on Pin Your Spin, his tough new Basin Street Records release, produced by John Porter. Backed by his Absolute Monster Gentlemen band, Cleary delivers a dozen original songs with cool conviction and expertise, and reminds us that soul can be spoken in a variety of dialects. Tight-and-right funk ("Got to Be More Careful," "Funky Munky Biznis"), sophisticated balladry ("Smile in a While," "Is It Any Wonder"), and Big Easy-via-Cuba piano ("Oh No No No," "King Zulu Strut")—all of these seem to be Cleary's native tongue.

Pin Your Spin even includes a street-corner doo-wop workout, "Best Ain't Good Enough." Sung with Absolute Monster Gentlemen bandmates Derwin "Big D" Perkins and Cornell Williams, the gospel-flavored a cappella arrangement seems an ideal setting for the song—though Cleary admits that the treatment came years after the song's genesis. "It was one of the first tunes we rehearsed when I put the band together ten years ago," he says. "But after trying several drastically different arrangements, I dropped it." The song was resurrected on a recent road trip to a gig in Mississippi.

As he and the Gentlemen passed the travel time by singing doo-wop arrangements of gospel tunes, Cleary was struck with the idea of singing "Best Ain't Good Enough" in the same vein. "We tried it out in the van," says Cleary, "then cut a demo in my home studio a few weeks later to see if it would work." It worked, indeed. That demo is the take that landed on Pin Your Spin. "I'd planned to re-record it for the album," Cleary adds, "but [producer] John Porter really dug it and felt that it should go on as it was."

Cleary is a prolific writer, and he considered two- or three-dozen songs while he was assembling material for Pin Your Spin. He is as particular as he prolific, though, and he always strives to get his songs in top shape before bringing them into the studio. "I had a bunch of contenders for this record," Cleary says, "some old and some new, in various stages of completion. With some of the songs, it was a matter of working on the lyrics. With others—like ‘Best Ain't Good Enough'—it was a question of finding an arrangement that suited the song and suited the record as a whole." Because Cleary is a busy musician—balancing time between fronting his own band and touring internationally as a key member of Bonnie Raitt's band — putting the finishing touches on all of the songs was a real challenge. "In order to satisfactorily complete the lyrics to certain tunes, I'd sometimes have to wear my lyricist's hat to the detriment of my arranger's hat, or my piano player's hat, or my producer's hat." Ultimately, he whittled his big batch of songs down to the 12 gems that comprise Pin Your Spin. "The others," he says, "will sit on the back burner for the time being, until I can properly dedicate myself to getting them right."

If setting such high musical standards means that Cleary's songs take longer to complete, Pin Your Spin is evidence that the effort is justified. There's no filler here—just smart lyrics, memorable melodies, and rock-solid grooves. Over the churning funk of the disc's title track, he skewers the influence peddlers prevalent in today's culture, beseeching "Don't try to pin your spin on me." In "Agent 00 Funk," Cleary embodies a sly "secret agent" who has to "operate behind enemy lines" to make time with the object of his affection. He illustrates the flip side of this tale on "Got to Be More Careful"—getting "caught red handed at the scene of the crime." With its irrepressible down-tempo bounce, yearning lyric, and Cleary's seasoned-to-perfection voice, "Smile in a While" is a song for lovers with serious soul. "Is It Any Wonder" is a break-up song, with Cleary poetically telling it like it is. The jazz-tinged harmonies here help set the mood with subtle sway, demonstrating Cleary's understanding of the power of self-restraint.

While Cleary is the prime motivator throughout, his Absolute Monster Gentlemen band does their fair share of the work to bring Cleary's musical vision to life. "They work together very powerfully," Cleary says emphatically. "There's a very high standard of technical musicianship, but the key thing is that they also play with a lot of soul and spirit. These guys dig in and play with a lot of passion, and I think it's that intangible element that seems to successfully move audiences everywhere we play.

"Living in New Orleans," Cleary continues, "I've always been spoiled for choice with great rhythm sections." Before assembling his band, he used to enjoy the challenge of putting together different rhythm sections for each gig, hiring Fats Domino's guys one night, Professor Longhair's band the next, members of the Meters on the next gig, and so on. "But one night, on my way home from a gig, I stumbled across the Friendly Travelers—a gospel band—playing for tips in a coffee bar. I dug them, and went back to their gigs many times, sitting in sometimes, and ultimately we became friends. Then I moved to New York for a while, but kept in touch with the guys and would visit whenever I was back in town." In 1994, Cleary was invited perform for the first time at the famed New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Instead of hiring all-star session musicians, he decided to try hiring Big D and Cornell from the Friendly Travelers. "I called them, and they said, ‘What took you so long? Of course we want to do it!'" Adding drummer "Jellybean" Alexander, whom the Friendly Travelers knew from working on Bourbon Street, the band was born.

Pin Your Spin is Cleary's third release (his second for Basin Street). The sound of the record is equal parts raw spark and refined sparkle, thanks to Cleary's seamless coupling of modern studio technology with his band's breathing, sweating human groove. Though Cleary doesn't like to talk too specifically about the nuts and bolts of how he makes records—preferring to "just present the finished thing and leave the process a bit of a mystery"—he offers this when pressed for details: "This project contained some of the elements of my previous albums. The first one was a ‘studio' record with more attention paid to polish and production, while the last one was simply a recording of us in the studio, playing as we would play on a gig. I combined approaches this time, drawing templates in advance for some of the songs in my home studio, and then bringing in the fellas to contribute their unique flavors."

Veteran producer John Porter was at the helm to help Cleary realize his fantastic soul vision. In electing Porter for the job, Cleary's reasons were twofold. First and foremost, they share similar tastes and backgrounds, so Cleary says he finds it easy to convey to Porter what he's trying to achieve artistically. Equally important, Cleary adds, "John brings a calm, confident, methodical approach to a process that is for me upside down and chaotic. For me, creating abstract musical ideas, writing songs, and crafting arrangements all requires a thought process that is fundamentally opposite to the pragmatic. John Porter restores order to my chaos, and he's good at it."

Cleary was recently featured in Martin Scorcese's critically acclaimed seven-part PBS Blues series "The Blues." The series' sixth film, "Red, White, and Blues," was produced by John Porter and directed by Mike Figgis and catches Cleary performing with Van Morrison, Tom Jones and Jeff Beck. Cleary's impressive past credits include work with Taj Mahal, B.B. King, and Bonnie Raitt—whom he continues to tour and record with—but, as Pin Your Spin makes abundantly clear, it's with the Gentlemen that his triple-threat flame burns brightest.

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Teedy began singing in talent contests at the age of 5. At that time she also began musical training in piano, violin and slide trombone. Teedy began to concentrate on vocal music at age 15 and began her education in music studying over 15 years under greats like Ellis Marsalis, Harry Connick, Jr, Ed Peterson, Steve Masacowski and Germaine Bazzle. Before the age of 18 she began to perform with New Orleans' jazz legends like Lloyd Lambert, Edward Frank, Fred Kemp and Joseph "Smokey" Johnson.

Teedy has already enjoyed a rich vocal career performing in a variety of musical settings. Her repertoire covers jazz, standards, R&B, pop, soul, gospel and Caribbean music. Teedy was the lead vocalist for her reggae band, Cool Riddims & Sista Teedy, which consistently won OffBeat Magazine's the Best of the Beat Awards for Best Reggae Band and its 1998 award for Best World Beat Album, Pledge To My People, which was produced by the legendary, Grammy award winning artist/writer/producer and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Allen Toussaint who also produced New Orleans music legends The Meters and Chocolate Milk, He also produced albums for Patti LaBelle and The Pointer Sisters, to name a few. Teedy was a background singer many years for Toussaint. The band also won Best World Music Band and Best World Music Album at Gambit Weekly's 1998 Big Easy Awards. That Year Teedy also won the award for Best Female Entertainer. She was awarded the honor once again winning the 2001 Big Easy Award for Best Female Entertainer.

Over the past several years Teedy has had the pleasure of being on stage or in the studio with some of our world's greatest performers; Allen Toussaint, Aaron, Cyril & Charmaine Neville, Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, D'Angelo, Ellis Marsalis, Shannon Powell, Herlin Riley, Stanton Moore, Corey Harris, Aretha Franklin, Irma Thomas, Dr. John, Steel Pulse, Marva Wright, Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, Fats Domino, Public Enemy, Dave Bartholomew, Shaggy, Bob & George French, Eric B. & Rakim, Deacon John, Galactic, Eazy E & NWA, Ytre Suløens Jass Ensemble (Norway), Secondline Jazz Band (Sweden) , SP-Just-Frost (Denmark), Neanders Jazz Band (Denmark) and the list goes and grows on.

Teedy has performed for concerts, clubs, benefits, festivals and television. These performances have taken her all over the world.
She is poised to introduce her voice to every ear - and they will listen.

Musical Theater plays a prominent part in Wanda's career. She's a veteran performer in Tours of Vernel Bagneris' Musical "One Mo' Time". She was also recognized for performances in "A...My Name Is Alice", and the CAC's 1960's hit musical, "Where the Girls Were", where she regularly received standing ovations for her portrayal of Tina Turner. The ovations continued for her brilliant performance as Billie Holiday in "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill" with Ellis Marsalis for which she received the Gambit's ‘Big Easy' Best Actress Award. She has also received a ‘Big Easy' award for Best Female Performer and continues to be recognized as one of New Orleans' Treasures. Wanda served as honorary music chair for the 2000 Gambit Big Easy Entertainment Awards.

Hear her music on Huckle-Buck Records: "It's What I Do", "A Taste of New Orleans" and "Where Ya At?!".

Ms. Rouzan has a Masters Degree, teaches drama to talented youngsters in the New Orleans Public Schools and takes great pride in her New Orleans community. She does volunteer work for numerous non-profit organizations, churches, and schools by donating her time and talents. Wanda serves on various boards and is always ready and willing to help or assist whenever called upon. She has entertained thousands throughout her career in this country and around the world and has truly been an Ambassador for the City of New Orleans.